The Blackhawks are teeming with toddlers.
Eight Hawks have had a child within the last two years, meaning advice about smooth diaper changes has been exchanged almost as frequently as advice about smooth line changes around the locker room these days.
“It lets you forget about the hockey side of life,” defenseman T.J. Brodie said. “When you’re at home, you have other responsibilities; it’s not just going home and worrying about yourself. It’s nice that way.”
Hawks forward Joey Anderson’s second daughter, Suzie, was born this past summer — not long after Jason Dickinson and Taylor Hall welcomed their first kids and shortly before Connor Murphy and Ryan Donato had their first.
Brodie, Craig Smith and Tyler Bertuzzi, meanwhile, moved their young families to Chicago after signing with the Hawks this past summer. And new goalie Laurent Brossoit will soon make it nine Hawks with babies. Nick Foligno, Pat Maroon and Arvid Soderblom already have older children.
That quantity hadn’t struck Dickinson -until he talked to former Hawks forward Sam Lafferty after the Hawks-Sabres game last weekend.
“[Lafferty] mentioned it: ‘There are so many kids on this team now, it’s crazy,’ ” Dickinson said. “It would’ve been nice at the time he was having his son. There wasn’t anybody on the team, really, with kids [back then]. It is really nice that everybody is at the same stage of life.”
Cherished calls
On Oct. 6, the day before the Hawks flew to Utah for their season opener, most of the Hawks’ kids gathered at Hall’s house for son Stetson’s first birthday party.
Hawks teammates are already calling Stetson by his given hockey nickname, “Stets,” and Hall said the party was “a blast.”
But long road trips — such as the four-game stretch that began in Utah, as well as the Hawks’ five-game journey starting Saturday in Dallas — are difficult for all the new dads and left-behind moms. There isn’t much the Hawks can do besides keeping in touch through video calls.
“My older [daughter] gets in a mood where she won’t put the phone down,” Anderson said. “Our younger one is pretty fun, though. She’s starting to make facial expressions and definitely smiling a lot. My wife’s tone helps pump that up: ‘Oh, is it daddy?’ The baby perks up and smiles a bit. I don’t know if they quite recognize what the phone is and how that works.”
Donato’s daughter, Charlie, certainly does not: “I think the dog recognizes me more than she does over FaceTime,” Donato quipped.
Murphy’s son, Tucker, is just now approaching the age where those kinds of things start to click. Murphy believes Tucker recognized him through the phone for the first time on the opening trip.
“We had FaceTimed other people [before], and he didn’t really show much emotion,” Murphy said. “This time I smiled and sang a nursery rhyme to him, and he got excited and smiled at it. That was really nice for me. I don’t know for sure — maybe he would do that for other people right now — but I’m going to make myself think that it’s because it’s me.”
Juggling responsibilities
During the summer, professional hockey players are fantastic dads with copious free time. During the season — even during homestands — it’s much harder to juggle the responsibilities, putting more pressure on other family members to carry the load.
“You really put your time in during the summer to try to make it as easy on the wife as possible,” Hall said. “And then during the season, there’s going to be times you have to be selfish and get some rest or whatever it may be.”
Said Donato: “My wife, she played hockey, and she knows how much time and effort it takes to feel your best. She says, ‘Do what you need to do, and I’ll be here with the baby when you come back.’ She’s been amazing. I can’t give her enough credit.”
The network of other wives dealing with similar day-to-day challenges is helpful. The Hawks rely on each other, and so do their spouses.
Dickinson and Anderson’s friendship, for example, has expanded beyond the game, and their wives and kids also hang out together when the guys are busy or gone.
“We’re able to ease our minds that they’re not going stir-crazy [because] they’ve got this little kid running their show for 10 days straight,” Dickinson said. “Those days become very, very long, so it’s good they have each other.”
Grins at the glass
The Hawks’ return home Oct. 16 prompted celebrations in many households around the city. The toddlers might not grasp the connectivity of technology, but they -certainly notice when their dads are back in person.
That led to an entourage of babies being held up to the glass in front-row seats during warmups before the home opener the next day. Stetson Hall’s presence inspired his dad to score four minutes into the game.
But Dickinson’s daughter, Willow, did not enjoy it whatsoever.
“She’s got this scowl on her face like, ‘I am not interested in this at all. Get me away from here. You guys are losers,’ ” Dickinson said, laughing. “She’s got this perfect face when you know she’s unimpressed with something.”
Anderson has assured him that Willow will eventually grow to love seeing her dad in the spotlight on the ice. He knows that because his older daughter went through the same evolution.
“Joey’s like, ‘We saw it,’ ” Dickinson added. “ ‘She will come around to it, and she’ll begin to love it. And then you won’t be able to keep her off the glass.’ ”